Mr. Lampson (for
himself and Mr. Markey) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and
Commerce

A BILL

To provide for the sale of light grade petroleum from the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve and its replacement with heavy grade
petroleum.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the
Consumer Energy Supply Act of
2008.

2.

Definitions

In this Act—

(1)

the term light grade petroleum
means crude oil with an API gravity of 30 degrees or higher;

(2)

the term heavy grade petroleum
means crude oil with an API gravity of 26 degrees or lower; and

(3)

the term
Secretary means the Secretary of Energy.

3.

Sale and
replacement of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

(a)

Initial
petroleum sale and replacement

Notwithstanding section 161 of the Energy
Policy and Conservation Act (42 U.S.C. 6241), the Secretary shall publish a
plan not later than 15 days after the date of enactment of this Act to—

(1)

sell, in the amounts and on the schedule
described in subsection (b), light grade petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum
Reserve and acquire an equivalent volume of heavy grade petroleum;

(2)

deposit the cash
proceeds from sales under paragraph (1) into the SPR Petroleum Account
established under section 167 of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (42
U.S.C. 6247); and

(3)

from the cash proceeds deposited pursuant
to paragraph (2), withdraw the amount necessary to pay for the direct
administrative and operational costs of the sale and acquisition.

(b)

Amounts and
schedule

The sale and
acquisition described in subsection (a) shall require the offer for sale of a
total quantity of 70,000,000 barrels of light grade petroleum from the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The sale shall commence, whether or not a plan has
been published under subsection (a), not later than 30 days after the date of
enactment of this Act and be completed no more than six months after the date
of enactment of this Act, with at least 20,000,000 barrels to be offered for
sale within the first 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act. In no
event shall the Secretary sell barrels of oil under subsection (a) that would
result in a Strategic Petroleum Reserve that contains fewer than 90 percent of
the total amount of barrels in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as of the date
of enactment of this Act. Heavy grade petroleum, to replace the quantities of
light grade petroleum sold under this section, shall be obtained through
acquisitions which—

(1)

shall commence no
sooner than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act;

(2)

shall be completed, at the discretion of
the Secretary, not later than 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act;

(3)

shall be carried
out in a manner so as to maximize the monetary value to the Federal Government;
and

(4)

shall be acquired
using the receipts from the sale of light petroleum authorized under this
section.

(c)

Deferrals

The Secretary is encouraged to, when
economically beneficial and practical, grant requests to defer scheduled
deliveries of petroleum to the Reserve under subsection (a) if the deferral
will result in a premium paid in additional barrels of oil which will reduce
the cost of oil acquisition and increase the volume of oil delivered to the
Reserve or yield additional cash bonuses.